Reasons to homeschool numbers 3,000,091 and 3,000,092

As I was in the shower today (enjoying one of the few moments of silence in my life) I started thinking about different things going on, and I won't explain the progression from one item to the next (it started with thinking about going to Mass tonight, and ended with my two new reasons to homeschool...) I ended up ranting inside my head, and thought since blogs are basically for ranting and raving, I'd come post my thoughts here.

So, the first one, reason 3,000,091 to homeschool is this: I know all schools, both public and private, do fundraisers...and that reason alone is a much lower number on my list (Colorado spends $8167 per student, among the lowest funding, with New York spending over $15000 per student) Even with Colorado's low school funding (for comparison, we don't expect to ever spend more than $500 per kid, per year)I find the fact that schools feel they need fundraisers to make ends meet disconcerting.

Due to the dumb cut off date, Eva is finally old enough to be going to PRESCHOOL (yes, we are over half done with Kindergarten) so, several of my friends kids have just started preschool. At our last Bible Study, one mom was telling us that the PRESCHOOLERS are required to do the fundraising, as well as the older kids. I mean, honestly...making 4 and 5 year olds sell crap for the school??? Just ridiculous. It just means that they expect the parents and other family to buy stuff, because I am ASSUMING they don't want 4 year olds going door to door selling stuff! (I guess what they probably REALLY want is the PARENTS to sell stuff...) And of course, there are rewards for selling the crap for the school...you get some sort of money "school bucks" or something like that. These "bucks" can be used at the school Christmas shop where you can buy cheap crap to give as gifts to your parents and siblings. As if that's not enough...the school wants the parents to come in an run the Christmas shop.

While I am on the subject of cut off dates (although this has nothing to do with homeschooling), I am very aggravated with the library. You see, at our library, they have an awesome story time program. Unlike other programs I've heard of, the kids must be signed up for an official time, and must be 3 to be a part of storytime. Of course, Charlotte won't be 3 until November, but the library says that it's cut off date is that they must be 3 before storytime begins (in late September...) and she can't just join a group in the middle of the year. NEVER MIND that EVERY SINGLE LIBRARIAN has told me that Charlotte is more than ready for story time...she doesn't fit into the dumb age schedule, so she is not welcome!

And of course, the reason 3,000,092 is President Obama's address next week. Last time I checked, the schools weren't doing the most fabulous job of educating students...for instance, this says that 75% of high school graduates are not ready for college...so, lets waste time with a "stay in school" speech by the president followed by questions such as (for the younger kids) What is the president trying to tell me? What is the president asking me to do? What new ideas and actions is the president challenging me to think about? What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?
Teachers could extend learning by having students:
· Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants, puzzle pieces, or trails marked with the following labels: personal, academic, community, and country. Each area could be labeled with three steps for achieving goals in that area. It might make sense to focus first on personal and academic goals so that community and country goals can be more readily created.
· Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals. Teachers would collect and redistribute these letters at an appropriate later date to enable students to monitor their progress.
· Write goals on colored index cards or precut designs to post around the classroom.
· Interview one another and share goals with the class to create a supportive community.
· Participate in school-wide incentive programs or contests for those students who achieve their goals.
· Write about their goals in a variety of genres, such as poems, songs, and personal essays.
· Create artistic projects based on the themes of their goals.
· Graph individual progress toward goals.
Or, for the older kids, great questions like: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say? Do you remember any other historic moments when the president spoke to the nation? What was the impact? What resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines or phrases do you remember? Whom is President Obama addressing? How do you know? Describe his audience. We heard President Obama mention the importance of personal responsibility. In your life, who exemplifies this kind of responsibility? How? Give examples. How are the individuals in this classroom similar? How is each student different? Suppose President Obama were to give another speech about being educationally successful. To whom would he speak? Why? What would the president say? What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them. Is President Obama inspiring you to do anything? Is he challenging you to do anything? What do you believe are the challenges of your generation? How can you be a part of addressing these challenges?

Yeah...couldn't they use all this time to actually TEACH and LEARN something???

Okay, rant over!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
We were just talking about how reliable our ugly old car is the other day, so naturally, when we went for a drive yesterday, it started making horrible noises and we couldn't get it above 35 miles an hour. So, hubby dropped the girls and I at home, and took it up to our mechanic (thankfully it made it home AND to the mechanic!) Our first guesses were something with the transmission (yuck) or something with a belt (we were crossing our fingers) or something else entirely. It's looking like something else entirely so far...and maybe not in a good way. Today they are going to drain the oil to see if there are bits of metal floating around in it (that would be very bad...terminal, in fact). If that is okay, they are going to look at some cover somewhere in there to see if it is cracked (that would be a best case scenario). They are going to call us every step of the way to see if we want to proceed to the next diagnostic thing. We obviously don't want to put too much money in this car, because we were planning on replacing it in the next year (probably more like 6 months) anyway.

2-
Neither of us slept very well last night. I had a hard time going to sleep, and hubby had a hard time staying asleep. Not good when we are both worrying that much. We have been researching vehicles a little bit (it does tie my stomach up in knots to think about at car loan, but that's what we'd probably do...) Any recommendations for SUVs with 4WD or AWD? We'd love to get something bigger (that could seat more than 5) if we are going to keep it for a long time, but it is looking like those will be out of our price range if we need a car sooner rather than later...so we are not discounting 5 seat ones.

3-
Eva's birthday party was awesome. It was really nice not having to worry about much, and just getting a chance to relax with family and friends. We had about 8 kids there, and almost 20 adults who acted like kids were swimming (plus another half dozen non swimmers that wandered in and out during the swimming part.) I was really glad that Eva got simple presents this year...she so often gets SOOO much stuff...but she got some dress shoes, some books, a magazine subscription, some candy, some bracelets (made by a friend who has 4 boys), an inexpensive digital camera, and ballet lessons and clothes from MIL. I even managed to tell my parents about our upcoming move before they came out, so that MIL and FIL didn't have to try to keep it quiet.

4-
Upcoming move? you say...well, I don't think I've actually blogged about the whole deal, but since most of our town knows, pretty much all of hubby's hometown knows, and even my parents know, I figure it is probably safe to blog about now. Hubby comes from a farming and ranching family, and his dad has farmed and ranched with his brothers for a very long time now. To make a REALLY long story short, the brothers agreed to split up the farm, and so in January FIL will be on his own...well, not entirely, because hubby's little brother is already out working for the farm, and sometime in the new year we will be moving out to the farm, too. Of course, we don't have any little piddly details like "when will we be moving?" (not that I like to plan or anything) but that is the main reason why we are looking at SUVs to replace our car (if, in fact, the problem is terminal or too expensive to bother with on that old of a car).

5-
I have been combing the net for zucchini bread recipes, because I STILL have zucchini coming out the ears, and have enough frozen shredded zucchini to make a batch a week and STILL not run out before next summer. Here is the one that I made last night...not the healthiest of options, but very tasty! Donna's Chocolate Zucchini Bread

6-
ONE MORE DAY OF SCHOOL...I've been having to force myself to finish up 3rd quarter of Kindergarten with Eva, and I just about have no ambition left. I had planned to finish it up a couple of weeks ago, then start 4th quarter on September 8th. Now I am just hoping to start 4th quarter by the end of September. We got a few new items for school, including a home ec curriculum that is driving my MIL crazy. The title of it used to be Home Economics for Home Schoolers, but it also is published as Lessons in Responsibility for Girls. THAT is the part that just ticks off MIL...she doesn't think that things should be published for girls (never mind that we have TWO GIRLS so far...) and thinks that all home ec stuff should be gender neutral (wanna guess what decade she was a teenager during???) But, as we only have girls so far, I know my first two students will be fine with the "for girls" title.

7-
And finally, I'll leave you this week with a self portrait of Eva, taken with the camera she received for her birthday:


More quick takes over at Conversion Diary.

When party comes before principle

As a pro-life Catholic (who would think there could be anything else?!), one of the things that most saddens and infuriates me are people who - sometimes from the rooftops - proclaim their pro-life beliefs, then act in complete defiance of them. Nowhere does this seem to be more prevalent than in the higher echelons of the Democratic Party.

I have often said I am pro-life first, before any loyalties to a particular political party. As an illustration, I sometimes tell people that if a pro-life Democrat were running against a pro-choice Republican, I would vote Democrat. The problem is, I've never been given the chance.

I know there are Democrats out there who are ardently pro-life and believe they can change the party from the inside. A guy I was friends with in college falls into this category, in fact. I wish him luck. However, it seems that anyone who desires to advance within the party must first check his or her pro-life beliefs at the door.

One example comes from here in Colorado. In 2006, The Los Angeles Times reported that "local abortion rights activists [were] despondent" because their only choice against pro-life, Catholic Republican Bob Beauprez was self-described pro-life, Catholic Democrat Bill Ritter. Well, it turns out that they really had no reason to fear for their agenda.

As former Colorado State Treasurer Mark Hillman pointed out just over a year ago, "Ritter restored state funding for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains; signed legislation that requires all Roman Catholic hospitals to distribute emergency contraception to rape survivors; said he will not seek to appoint judges who oppose abortion rights; and has 'no antiabortion legislation on his agenda.'" Noting Ritter's propensity for trying to come down on both sides of the fence on other matters (such as labor issues) Hillman notes, "Once a politician trades for political gain what he knows to be right on an issue as fundamental as human life, it's hard to imagine anything he won't compromise. With no discernible core beliefs - except the desire to be governor - Ritter is understandably indecisive."

Another example comes from a column by Colman McCarthy in The Washington Post during the 1988 presidential campaign. McCarthy describes a hypothetical confrontation between the Jesse Jackson of 1977 -who was an ardent spokesman for the rights of the unborn- and the Jesse Jackson of 1988, who had turned 180 degrees away from his prior beliefs in just over a decade. "Jackson of 1988," McCarthy wrote, "[said] abortion is acceptable because ''it is not right to impose private, religious and moral positions on public policy.'" But the 1977 Jackson would have responded, according to McCarthy, how he had previously written about those who justify legalized abortion based on privacy: "That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned."

Perhaps the most timely example of this kind of hypocrisy comes from a letter written in 1971. It says, in part:

While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized -- the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old. (source)

The author of that letter, Senator Ted Kennedy, died this past week with ratings of 100% each in 2008 from NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood. Kennedy's salvation is certainly between him and God. I hope he, as a practicing Catholic, took the opportunity to make a good confession before he died, and be reconciled with God and his Church. But it breaks my heart to think about how this country could have been different if he had spent his 47 years in the Senate defending life, rather than worrying about what groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood thought of him.

In the air we breathe...

It's been a really busy couple of weeks, and the prospects for the next couple of weeks look just about the same way... so, I thought I'd take the chance while I had it to share a few thoughts.

A really good (non-Catholic) friend contacted me recently to ask whether I would find it offensive, as a Catholic, if she dressed her daughter as a nun for Halloween. If she happens to read this, I'd like to thank her for thinking of me, and especially for getting me thinking about it! (For the record, my response was basically that, as long as the costume wasn't designed in such a way as to intentionally demean nuns or the religious life, I didn't think any reasonable Catholics would have a problem with it; in fact, the daughter might find herself in the company of some Catholic children whose parents use Halloween and All Saints' Day as a chance to teach about the lives of the saints!)

The conversation reminded me of something I'd noticed while carrying mail around the town in which we live: many non-Catholics seem to be drawn toward Catholic images and ideas, even if it would never occur to them to investigate the faith itself. While my friend is definitely exceptional in lots of other ways, her interest in a nun's habit certainly isn't one of them when you consider all of the appearances by nuns in movies and television over the years. And it's not only nuns: just on the little mail route that I carry, I have noticed St. Francis statues in the yards of two non-Catholic customers, and a "Friar Tuck"-like monk in another. In fact, my non-Catholic customers with "Catholic lawn ornaments" (visible from where I deliver mail, at least) outnumber my Catholic customers with similar statues three to one!

I think Catholic imagery surrounds us to such an extent that we don't even think about it too much, but it's even more interesting to me that it occurs where we live because it hasn't traditionally been a heavily Catholic area. Several of the little towns around ours don't have a Catholic church, but almost certainly would if they were another couple of hours further east in the more densely Catholic areas of Kansas or Nebraska. In fact, I have met people in the area who remember crosses being burned in front of the homes of Catholics.

Reflecting on this brings to mind Christopher Stasheff and his various "light fantasy" novels (of which MM has now read 36, I believe, with me not too far behind!). His books generally take place in a more or less medieval setting one way or another - sometimes in an alternate universe, sometimes in the future on planets recovering from being cut off from "civilization," and so on - and are somewhat unique in the fantasy and science fiction genres in that they seriously consider the role religion (and, in particular, the Catholic Church) played in the day-to-day lives of the people of that era. Stasheff comments in at least one of the short biographies that appear in the back of the books that, as a fan of fantasy novels depicting the "swords-and-sorcery" era, it always struck him as odd that many writers tried to be historically accurate in so many areas while completely ignoring what would have been one of the most important to the characters described: religion. It permeated nearly every aspect of life, Stasheff points out, like the air around us.

When you think about it - and the nearly universal appeal of such Catholic figures as St. Francis and Mother Teresa (not to mention the "Hail Mary" pass) - maybe our culture's not so different, after all.

Quick Takes Friday

1-
The Midwest Catholic Family Conference was awesome. I had such a great time this year, even with Charlotte being too young for the children's program. Lots of great speakers, and even more excitingly, I found out that Dr. Ray Gaurendi will be there next year (yeah!) So, I'm already planning on taking the girls next year. So, today, here are some conference pictures...first one of the girls this year, then a couple of the Tony Melendez concert (he asked for 6 or 7 people of any age to come up on stage and sing), then finally a picture of the girls at LAST year's conference, so that I can get teary eyed about how big they are getting...

2-
Both myself and MIL had appointments up in the city this week...so we were all over the metro area on Tuesday, and then found out shortly after getting back that SIL who lives in Denver is moving (needed to find a cheaper place to rent, and ended up deciding to get rid of her cats to open up more living options) so I think we are all going up on Sunday after church to help her move.

3-
We'll be attending church in hubby's hometown this weekend to sell tickets for the Tony Melendez concert being held at our parish on August 29th. I think there should be quite a bit of interest, but the person in charge of all the tickets could only scrounge up 20 tickets for us to sell...if more people are interested, we'll have to take down names and if there are other tickets that come back from other parishes, then we'll be able to get them tickets. Ironically, it is looking like many people from our parish won't be able to get tickets. Some people have been saying that they'll just buy tickets at the door, but it looks like it will be a sell out before then!

4-
Hubby and I bought tickets to begin with, but are thinking about giving ours away, since we just saw Tony Melendez at the conference in Wichita, and because we will be helping run the spaghetti supper ahead of time. Eva was so impressed with Tony Melendez, that I'm thinking we'll have MIL take the girls up to the concert on our tickets.


5-
I recently ordered "The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh" off paperback swap...it had been on my wish list for about a year now, and I was very excited that it was even a hardback version. It came in the mail today...maybe with a little divine intervention. The person who sent it had wrapped it up in two priority mail envelopes, but sent it media mail (with stamps), there was no PVI label (the little printed thingy at the PO) which is required for all packages over 12 oz or something like that (it's a heavy book!), none of the stamps were canceled (until hubby canceled them for fun at work...) and we weren't charged postage due for the priority mail wrapping. Even more cool than the fact that it wasn't lost in the mail or that it didn't come with several dollars of postage due is the fact that it was a brand new book in wrapping! So, I'll be wrapping it in gift wrap to give Eva on her birthday!

6-
Speaking of birthdays...my 30th is in three days...I don't know if I'm ready to turn 30 yet! I know I've been harassing hubby about being 30 and over for a long time now, and I'll no longer be able to starting Monday...then I'll have to wait until he turns 35, and point out that he is pushing 40...oh well!

7-
My SIL (the one about to move) is also turning 30 soon...first week of September. MIL asked each of us individually what we would like to do for our birthdays...and we both answered with "can we just ignore that I'm turning 30?" MIL is not that easily persuaded, so we have been talking about different things...gambling wasn't too exciting, theatre would be okay, but I'm leaning towards spa day. So, I was bored and on the computer, so I thought I'd check out spa services and prices (I can't help but be cheap!), so I looked at Colorado spas, and then thought maybe I should look in the other direction...so I looked up Nebraska spas, and found one that has some good specials going on in Grand Island, NE...who knew there would even be a spa in Grand Island?

More quick takes as always at Conversion Diary!

"It's the Post Office that's always having problems!"

Ok, first:

Isn't this exactly the argument that those who are opposed to the government running the health-care system (or even just part of it, a la the "public option" plan) use? I mean, I'm the first to point out that running the postal service is more complicated and difficult than most people imagine... but it's also not a matter of life and death, most of the time.

Secondly, speaking as a postal employee: thanks for the vote of confidence, man. That'll give morale a big shot in the arm; I just know it!

Update: Just a thought: I wonder how the two biggest unions for postal employees (the APWU and the NALC) - who both supported the Obama presidential run - feel about this. According to unionfacts.com, they each spent over $1.3 million on "political activities and lobbying."

Update 2: My boss received an e-mail today with a couple of articles on this comment. The one from The Wall Street Journal was especially good, but I can't find an online version yet. Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post ends with this remark: "Still ... to have the president poke fun at your financial situation in his first public comments about your agency? Yeah, not good."

Update 3: OK, here's the link to The Wall Street Journal's online commentary mentioned above, if anyone is interested (under the subheading "ObamaCare Goes Postal"). And now, looking at all of these updates, I think I've officially started beating the proverbial dead horse! Moving on...

Since I'm going to miss my quick takes this week...

I figured I'd pop in with a few things!

The girls and I went to the Kit Carson County Fair this week with MIL. They have a wooden carousel, one of the last of its kind in the country (there are only around 150 left) and it is in beautiful condition. We spent much of the day riding it (it runs every half hour) while MIL judged cakes. The girls had a lot of fun. I didn't get any pictures in action, as I had to hold Charlotte on her horse, but I thought I'd share a couple of cute ones with you today.


Also, I've been canning away again. We ignored our bean plants for a couple of weeks...so when I sent hubby out to pick them, he came in with an over half full 5 gallon bucket. So, we have 10 more pints of green beans for winter consumption.

Finally, this year I ordered an assortment of hot peppers from Gurney's...so we didn't know what we were getting until they produced fruit. At least two of the plants are alive and well, one has banana peppers, and other other has these...our guess is Thai chili peppers...but we don't really know, and I have no idea what to do with them! Any ideas or suggestions?

Well, better go finish cleaning so that we can get out of here and do our last county fair thing (volunteering at the beer garden) before heading to Wichita!

Delivering mail in a small town

Now that I've spent a day finally getting my county fair fix for the year (thank you to MM, who has far exceeded her county fair tolerance for the year, but was willing to endure a little more so I could enjoy the pork I helped with and check out the livestock), I feel a little more like talking about my day yesterday.

Not that it was necessarily that bad, although the lack of a full complement at the post office due to vacations and days off - compounded by me dropping a bunch of mail in the middle of the street and having to re-order it all - made it a little stressful; rather, it was just sort of surreal.

There are a lot of times when, while delivering mail, I'll see something fairly bizarre. Volunteer corn growing out of the rain gutters on people's roofs, for example, or just some of the things people leave out on their porches... But usually my role is just that of an observer, not someone involved in "the action." Yesterday, though, I was walking up to someone's mailbox when their crazy nutjob dog came tearing around the corner of the house, bearing down on me. I started waving that customer's mail around in the dog's face to keep its snapping jaws away from me, and I guess I must have yelled a little bit because the lady who lives in the house came out to see what was going on. As soon as she stepped out onto her porch, she shouted something and went sprinting into her house. The next thing I knew, she was running back out, firing probably eight or ten paintballs at the dog! I don't know if any of them hit the dog, but she was a good enough shot that he ran away (and I wasn't hit).

I was fairly steamed about the whole thing immediately afterward, mainly because this dog is an ongoing problem for me. By the time I told MM about it over the phone while she was on her way back from yet another fair, though, I could hardly stop laughing long enough to get the story out.

I guess I should just be thankful that I normally don't need to go inside people's houses for this job. When I used to appraise houses for the county assessor's office in the last town we lived in, I got to see the full glory of small-town freakiness (including, but not limited to, topless vacuuming). So, there's a "glass half-full" way of looking at things somewhere in there after all!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
My major accomplishment this week...sewing dresses for the girls. It took having MIL sit next to me and interpret the pattern into English for me, but the second dress I did entirely by myself (it doesn't look as good as the first, but the girls both seem to like them!) Now I am thinking of other projects I could sew...hubby really wishes I wouldn't...I think.

2-
Hubby's major accomplishment this week was finishing up the light cover in our kitchen. I posted an "in progress" picture recently, and am feeling too lazy to get the camera out this morning, but it looks really good. He ended up putting in cross bars in between the light covering. He even ended up having $40 worth of unused materials to return to the lumber yard. So, that's one more item off our to do list (there are still plenty more home improvement projects to go!)

3-
MIL is driving all over the region to judge 4-H Cake Decorating, so on Tuesday the girls and I went with her to one fair (only 30 minutes from WalMart, yeah!), we went shopping while she judged, and then had lunch at the fair and looked around for a while (before coming home and sewing dresses...yes, I AM insane!) Eva was really bummed that none of the rides were open (it was the first day of fair, and we were there in the middle of the day). We might be going with MIL again on Monday (to a town an hour away from ours, but they have some interesting sights, and a Safeway.) Then on Tuesday, we will be going over to our own county's fair. Hubby is going over at 6:30 am to pull pork off a roasted pig for the Knights of Columbus. Fortunately, it looks like there is enough help going over for that, so the girls and I will wait until later in the day to go over.

4-
Speaking of fairs and Knights of Columbus...on Thursday hubby and I will be going to help the Knights of Columbus with a beer garden at yet another fair (that makes it likely that I will be at 5 county fairs in three weeks...) We were going to skip it this year, because on Friday morning we will be leaving at 6 am to drive to Wichita for the Midwest Catholic Family Conference. Of course, I guess I still need to tell MIL that we'll be leaving the dog and kids on Thursday afternoon, spending the night at their house, and then leaving first thing in the morning...Hmmm...maybe I should consult her before deciding these things!

5-
Because I am a cruel mom, I've decided to make the girls match for the conference. So, on Saturday, they will be wearing their strawberry shortcake dresses that I just finished, and on Sunday they will wear the red and white checked matching dresses my mom sent them for Easter. Friday they will probably look like slobs...but we'll have a long drive there. I'm hoping to get to Wichita early enough that we can take the kids to the pool before the conference starts to get some energy out of them...but we'll see I guess!

6-
I have a LOT of cleaning to catch up on, and a lot of packing to do this week...plus may be out of the house on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday...Not to mention part of Saturday and all day Sunday! During the summer, our parish has a sign up for different parish groups to host coffee and rolls or a breakfast. This Sunday we are hosting for the Couple to Couple League, since we missed national NFP week. Another couple who have been NFP users forever, and are very supportive of our teaching are bringing 11 dozen donuts and will be there to help serve, but I will probably be going to Mass on Saturday, after assembling 12 egg casseroles, so that Sunday morning I will be able to cook casseroles, slice up watermelon and make coffee and apple juice. Yes, I DO plan to lose my mind completely by the end of next week!

7-
My mom started back to school this week. My dad didn't...so he's probably rubbing that in right about now. As for our school, Eva will finish her third quarter of Kindergarten before her 5th birthday. We have two more days this week (I procrastinated, so now we get to do school today and Saturday!) then three more weeks to go for this quarter...after we are back from vacation, of course!

As always, there are plenty more quick takes at Conversion Diary!

Fair results!

Well, I promised I'd be back with some fair results and I even have some good pictures (oh my new camera, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!)

The theme for fair this year was "Keepin' It Country", and I completely forgot to bring scrapbook pages or any sort of crafty thing, because I was so busy trying to get food stuff together. Hubby did pick some veggies out of our garden for the garden class, and the girls decorated book covers while we were there for that contest. Here's our results:

Green beans - no place
Giant Zucchini - 2nd Place
Giant Vegetable - 1st Place (cucumber)
Slicing cucumbers - no place
Summer Squash (yellow straight or crooked neck) - no place, but the judge said ours would have gotten first if the straight and crooked neck were in different classes)
Summer Squash (zucchini or coccozelle type) - 2nd place
Whole Wheat Bread - 1st Place AND Overall Yeast Bread (won 25 lb bag of flour!)
Miscellaneous Yeast Bread - 1st Place (Pretzels)
Banana Bread - 3rd Place
Zucchini Bread - 3rd Place
Pumpkin Bread - 2nd Place
Fruit/Vegetable Batter Cake - 1st Place (carrot cake)
Any Cookie made by person 13 and under - 1st Place (Eva's Gingerbread Men)
Intermediate Level Decorated Cake - 1st Place
Canned Fruits - 2nd Place (Pear Sauce) and 3rd Place (Peaches)
Canned Vegetables - 2nd Place (Green Beans)
Pickles - 1st Place (Bread and Butter Pickles) and 2nd Place (Dill Pickles)
Spiced Products - 1st Place (Zesty Salsa)
Relishes - 1st Place (Sweet Pickle Relish)
Butters and Jams - 3rd Place (Strawberry Jam)
Jellies - 2nd Place (Pomegranate Jelly)
Miscellaneous - 2nd Place (Apple Syrup)
Miscellaneous B - 1st Place (Spaghetti Sauce)
Decorate a Book Cover, 3 and Under Division - 2nd Place
Decorate a Book Cover, 4-6 Division - 4th Place

So, total premium money was $51.50, and the bag of flour (according to MIL who bought an identical one for fair baking) runs about $17 at the grocery store. Not bad!

Besides spending ALL DAY on Friday with the foods (and skipping the BBQ afterwards to relax at an air conditioned restaurant) the girls and I stayed overnight at MILs house so that we could see the parade in the morning. The girls got a ton of candy...and Eva didn't find it funny when I suggested we put it up until Halloween and use it for trick or treaters (I have never actually been around to hand out candy to trick or treaters, to be honest...most kids around here don't go trick or treating, other than the downtown event, and possibly to relatives houses...)

Saturday, the Knights of Columbus put on Kid's Games. They were divided by ages and sexes, which was great news for Charlotte, but not as great of news for Eva. Charlotte had 2 other girls in her division...so she came in first, second or third on all four races. Eva had about 10 little girls in hers, so she only placed in one race: the three legged race, and she and her little partner took first. Then the Knights do a penny scramble, where they throw money into sawdust on a tarp, and give the kids a minute to dig in it...the big kids all stand around and whine while the little kids are digging, because it is SOOO easy to find the money then (unless you are a 3 year old!) All in all, the girls came home with $5.35 from the kids games. They also got to pet animals at the petting zoo. There were NO RIDES this year at the fair, which made Eva sad. We did eventually find the bouncy house thing, but not until I was out of cash and out of energy. When we went back Sunday morning, it had already been packed up.

I met a woman and her husband that I just really clicked with...they own several cows, and sell shares in their herd of animals...if you buy a share of a cow, you are entitled to 1 gallon of raw milk per week for a monthly herd maintenance charge of $28. They also have chickens, goats and three little boys that they home school (the oldest is a little bit older than Eva, and the youngest is just a little bit younger than Charlotte. She's working on having some goat cheese making workshops before too long, and I am really looking forward to that. She also told me that I could bring the kids by anytime, and learn how to milk. Yeah, she's basically everything I'd want to be if I were in the country...don't know if I'll ever get that far (she rendered the lard for her apple pie!) but it's cool to meet someone who does all that. They even have a website for their farm.

Now, I really should get to cleaning up the kitchen from my all day baking disaster!

Church woes...

Okay, they are not exactly woes...but hubby and I were just discussing the Mass at our parish this morning on the way home from MILs house.

We had a visiting priest this morning, because our pastor is on vacation. Our pastor is somewhere around 5'6"...the visiting priest (a friend of his from seminary) was over 6 feet tall...wearing our 5'6" priests vestments. He had a great opening joke about our pastor stealing his vestments from the Infant of Prague statues...

Mass was wonderful...with two exceptions. Number 1: The music. Now, I have been working on just singing the music that is played rather than whining about it, so this should not be read with a whiny tone...but DH and I were saying it was like a top ten list of most hated songs from the Gather hymnal today. I jokingly said that I should flip through a Gather hymnal and pick out my ideal Mass music, but I don't have one at home, so I'll just have to go off this list of common titles and first lines.

Today we sang: Gather Us In, I Danced In The Morning, All Who Hunger (this one I actually really love, and we sing it a lot...I could do with far less of almost everything we sing though...), Pan de Vida, and Sing of the Lord's Goodness.

For my ideal Mass (remember, I am only going by first lines and memories here): Lift High the Cross, I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light, All Who Hunger (I said I like it), Eat This Bread, Faith of Our Fathers.

So, any suggestions or changes you would suggest to my ideal Mass music? It is late, and I could have missed something I really should have chosen.

Now, back to Mass today. Problem number 2: Our parish has a custom of letting people get up and give announcements before the final blessing. Of course, having a visiting priest means that he didn't know the custom, and he gave the final blessing...at that point, if I were to have an announcement, it would need to be pretty friggin' important for me to make it. But NO...THREE different people got up to make announcements...none of them urgent, and ALL of them went on and on...

Really, it is indicative of the problems we are having as a parish...struggling with the authority of the priest...that people thought that their two cents about things was so important that they had to speak EVEN THOUGH Father had already given the final blessing. Only one small comment in the 10 minutes or more of announcements was even timely (that we were having coffee and rolls put on by a certain group following Mass) and several of them were sparked by people's reactions to Father's homily.

I don't know if I need to talk to our pastor and suggest that all announcements should to be submitted to the lector before Mass, and can be read in that space by the lector, rather than having individual people make announcements. Really, it was WAY out of control today, and was really hard to keep all the kids sane(I have mentioned that we have a ton of children in the parish before...well, imagine wailing and gnashing of teeth from close to 50 kids ages 5 and under while people ramble about their thoughts on life the universe and everything while making a point like "we are studying the Eucharist in our catechism group. We meet at 6:30 tonight. All are welcome to come.")

Okay, enough random thoughts for tonight, I should get to bed and get some sleep. I promise it will be back to useless stuff like fair results later this week!

On this date in 1968...

Pope Paul VI promulgated a little document that has probably inspired more debate and commentary than just about any other papal encyclical in the history of the Church.

It's amazing to me that 41 years after the publication of Humanae Vitae -and long after most of the rest of the "industrialized" world has embraced widespread access to both contraception and abortion- the federal government here in the United States is still hashing out exactly how comfortable we are with either as a country. Sarah Posner, writing on The American Prospect's "Tapped" blog, discusses the prospects of a bill introduced this week by self-proclaimed pro-life Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan and his pro-choice co-sponsor, Rep. Rosa DeLauro. The "Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act," more commonly known as "Ryan-DeLauro" seeks to reduce the "need" for abortions, in part, by providing wider access to contraception.

This kind of reasoning, of course, leads many people who would support the theoretical goal of reducing abortions to withhold their support of Ryan-DeLauro. Some pro-life activists fret, or at least appear to in their portrayals by such media outlets as Newsweek, that this division will lead to a weaker pro-life "bloc." At least one blogger who subscribes to Ryan-DeLauro's philosophy claims "Pro-Lifers would also serve their own agenda better by not aligning with anti-contraception crazies." Despite all this, though, I find the situation (as described by Posner) reassuring:

Evidence of a looming internecine showdown among abortion opponents includes Democrats for Life of America's recent ouster of Ryan from its board over his sponsorship of the bill. That led Ryan to call DFLA a "fringe group" because of its opposition to contraception. DFLA is one of the major proponents of the Pregnant Women Support Act (PWSA), a bill that is intended to reduce the number of abortions through economic and other measures aimed at persuading women facing unintended pregnancies to carry them to term. The PWSA is supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention.

To me, this shows that there is still an active "ends-means" debate going on, and that there are still large (and fairly powerful) groups of people who are not prepared to make the Faustian bargain of accepting one thing they believe to be evil in order to combat a larger evil.

I'm glad for this, at least in part, because I believe abortion and contraception are inherently connected. More importantly, the U.S. Supreme Court believes this, too. As one of today's strongest defenders of Humanae Vitae, Dr. Janet Smith, points out here, part of the Court's rationale for preserving Roe in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) was that "for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail."

So, despite being a "tough row to hoe" (even with Catholics, sometimes), I'm glad there are still people out there who take Humanae Vitae seriously. I think a lot more depends on this struggle than just how people choose to prevent or allow pregnancy.

Seven Quick Takes Friday (DH edition)

This is the first time I've tried this, MM is going to be busy all day with county fair insanity, so I thought I'd cover for her this week.

1. The county fair in question is actually in the town I grew up in, about 40 minutes away from here. My mom is usually Foods Superintendent, so MM feels obliged to submit about 600 entries in solidarity with her...then volunteer to help coordinate things on the day when judging takes place, etc. That is today. I think I helped pack up about a dozen canned goods, at least half a dozen baked goods (including a cake decorated as a John Deere tractor), and several items from our garden.

2. Making today kind of iconic of how busy our summer has been, and will be at least until after we get back from the Midwest Catholic Family Conference, I will actually be working at a booth for our Knights of Columbus council here in our town tonight. This town's big summer festival always seems to be concurrent with my folks' county's fair, so MM has still never attended (much to the amazement of the women in her Bible study who were born and raised here).

3. Speaking of MM's Bible study, I was a little bit of a jerk last night when she got home. I just got grouchy and, eventually, a little worried as the hours went by. I can understand a good discussion, but it raged on nearly four and a half hours! I don't think I've had that long of a conversation ever, for any reason. At our Knights meeting on Tuesday, it only took us an hour and fifteen minutes to install new officers, figure out at least four different events coming up, and sing two goofy songs! But, I definitely should have been less grumpy about the time. Sorry!

4. I just finished listening to my Pray as You Go podcast. I try to do this every day, so I have started to notice that there are certain musical pieces that keep recurring. One that I definitely don't mind was this morning, and (as dorky as it is to admit this) it never fails to cheer me up. "Ladysmith Black Mambazo sing Ngaza Ngambona: "They are blessed who keep His commandments; they will have their eternal place; come in, all of you, so that you may be happy and be able to say, 'I've seen Him on the cross, the One who loves me...'"

5. I always ramble on too long with these kind of things, and I need to hurry up so I can get ready for work!

6. One of the only things lately that I've been tempted to come up for air long enough to blog about was the asinine cover story in this past week's Parade magazine. Let's just say the solutions they imagine for the "child-care crisis" don't include much in the way of encouraging mothers to become stay-at-home moms. In fact, the first couple of paragraphs try to show what a bad idea it is to rely on one income in this economy. Scare tactics: pfaw!

7. Another potential stand-alone blog post was more or less already done by Joe Carter at First Things, of all places. He links to the beautiful, breast-cancer themed routine on this week's "So You Think You Can Dance," and provides some interesting perspective. All I would add is this food for thought from "The Human Cost of Healthcare Reform," found here:

Overall Britons and Europeans in general die at a higher rate from all forms of cancer than US citizens and the difference is dramatic in cases where early detection and treatment are important. For example, women with breast cancer in Britain have a 46% death rate as opposed to 25% in the US.

Well, hope you liked 'em. Go to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!

10th Anniversary Post

Well, I almost feel obligated to post something today, so here goes:

10 years ago, today hubby had two flat tires, missed work at McDonald's, I missed my economics class, so we decided to get married to improve the day.

HINT NUMBER ONE that my hubby was a hick: We went to the DMV that morning to get our marriage license...all was going well, we were just about done with the paperwork when hubby asked the poor clerk "So, do we just go in back to get married?" I sank down into my chair, and explained to the startled woman that hubby was from a very small town (where the DMV is in the courthouse) and explained to hubby that the courthouse was across town.

We then headed over to the courthouse, found out that judges couldn't marry people until after hours. Made an appointment, moved all my stuff out of my parent's house to his apartment (in case they didn't take the elopement very well!) Showered, dressed up, bought a disposable camera, had dinner at McDonalds...then went and got married (with two court clerks as witnesses/photographers).

We told my dad, who took it better than expected, then had to call my mom and tell her (I made my dad do that, I think) told hubby's parents, and then I spent the night at my parents house, since hubby was housesitting for his boss.

So, obviously, we did our big anniversary celebration last month with our Vegas trip...so what happened today?

We got to church, hubby opened the missalette for the first reading, looked at the date, then poked me and whispered "Happy Anniversary". Then, Father gave a homily on taking time away from the crowd to be with Jesus, with the example of turning off cell phones to get away...right after Mass, hubby got on Facebook to admit he forgot our anniversary.

Then, we went to MILs house for the day. After lunch, I decided to clean out her refrigerator (she knew I was going to blog about it...she's just VERY lucky I didn't have my camera on me!). After 3 full trash bags, with some stuff having use by dates of 2007 (her pantry was worse last time...I think I found something from the late 80s or early 90s...) we took a break. MIL needed to take the Women of Grace DVDs and Facilitator's Guide to a woman over in Nebraska, so hubby and I offered to drop them by on our way to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (YEAH!!!) which for the matinee was only $3.50 each (double YEAH!!!) Then we picked up McDonald's to take home to everybody, finished cleaning out the fridge, and finished off a bottle of liquor that they brought home from their cruise earlier this year.

Now, we're home, the day is almost over, and I think it's almost time for bed...but for when he gets around to reading this: Happy 10th Anniversary my dear (hick) husband!

Quick Takes Friday

Well, here it is Friday again, so I am back to blogging (since quick takes Friday is pretty much all I get around to these days!)

1-
We've been making some progress on the home improvement front. On the 4th hubby installed my utility sink, and then this week he worked really hard on the florescent lights in our kitchen. Basically, we have them running around the perimeter of the kitchen, but there was no cover over them...so after three years here, hubby finally came up with a solution that works for him (he's an obnoxious perfectionist...) and it looks pretty good! Unfortunately, he burnt out the motor brushes on his Dremel while cutting the plastic. So, after checking every store conceivable within a 1 1/2 hour radius, he ended up calling Dremel to get the part, which is supposed to be replaced every 60 hours of use (trust me, he's gotten 60 hours of usage out of it on home improvement projects around here...I never actually thought that thing would be useful, but I stand corrected!) Shipping was okay from Dremel, but when I was looking online at stores, most of them charged $7 to $8 to ship an INTERIOR PART FOR A DREMEL...something about that just seems wrong!

2-
On Sunday, we had a picnic at the park with MILs side of the family. We don't see them that often (although several of them live in the same town as MIL), we mostly just see MIL's dad and one of her brothers (and his family). So, seeing the more extended group was fun. Although, this is the side of the family where most of the siblings (MIL's dad and his brothers and sisters) have been married between 3 and 5 times each. One of the sisters is a teacher in a private school for learning disabled children, and we had a great talk about schools and homeschooling. It's really nice to have one side of the family be excited about our homeschooling the girls. I mean, my MIL and FIL and all hubby's siblings are just fine with it, but the more extended family on his dad's side is a little anti-homeschooling...and then there are my (public school teaching) parents, who just don't get it, and I'm pretty sure are still hoping that I just get over it before Eva needs to be in school.

3-
Tuesday MIL had a doctor's appointment, so we took the opportunity to take the girls for their Chuck E Cheese reward for Charlotte's potty training (and Eva's not waking us up every night with nightmares), so the girls, hubby, myself, MIL and SIL went up, and my mom and dad met us at Chuck E Cheese's...the girls had a blast, and SIL is super competitive at skee ball. Of course, while she was driving MIL over to her doctor's appointment, I had the best skee ball game in my life (it really doesn't take much...I'm really bad) and scored over 450,000, which won the grand prize (I didn't realize they had a grand prize) which was up to 250 tickets. So, the girls ended up getting slightly more interesting junk at the end of the trip.

4-
Anyone want zucchini??? Hubby swore he was keeping up on bringing in the squash for me, and then he brought in 7 baseball bat sized zucchini. I threatened his life if he ever brought in more that size (after shredding the 7, and freezing 14-2 cup portions of zucchini for baking), and I now have another 6 sitting on my counter...and that's after he begged a friend to come over and take some (I think he talked her into taking 3). We also have beans starting to produce, so before I know it, I'll be in full swing of canning again.

5-
I am working on eating lower carb foods, as per my doctor's orders, and it's a challenge for me, since I used to cook spaghetti about 3 times a week. Last night I made stuffed peppers, and they were SOOO good, so here's my kinda sorta recipe for them:

1 1/2 lbs hamburger (that's just the package size we get from the packing plant, could do less)
1 med zucchini chopped
1/2 chopped red bell pepper
1 chopped carrot
1/2 c. crushed croutons (I said lower carb...)
1/2 c. ketchup
5 large red bell peppers

brown hamburger...realize that it is greasy, find almost empty ketchup bottle in fridge. Squeeze remainder of ketchup into a mixing bowl. Use funnel to pour off grease into ketchup bottle. Throw hamburger on top of ketchup in bowl. Preheat over to 350. saute zucchini, chopped bell pepper and carrot. Ignore instructions to boil whole red peppers for 5 minutes, instead just cut off tops, remove seeds and wash, set upside down to drain. Put sauteed veggies in mixing bowl, add crushed croutons. Mix well. Fill each pepper with meat mixture, set in muffin tins (to keep upright while cooking) bake for 30 minutes. Watch children and husband devour. Serve with cottage cheese because you are feeling too lazy to make anything else.

6-
I am enjoying myself very much right now...Eva is at the end of the year swim party for the summer reading program, accompanied by MIL. Charlotte is in her bedroom with hubby watching Pocahontas on the little TV/VCR that grandma brought down because she felt so bad that Charlotte can't go swimming today. We already finished school, MIL has offered to take us out to lunch (so I don't have to cook) and she's going to stay around this afternoon to watch the girls while I take our pug Bubba to the vet (otherwise, hubby would have to take an hour or so off work this afternoon, since he scheduled the appointment in the middle of the girl's usual nap/quiet time.)

7-
We are planning Eva's 5th birthday party now, and I'm pretty excited about it. This will be her first friend party, and we have rented out the pool in MILs town (our pool is outdoors, and closes as soon as school is back in session...so August 30th is too late for here!) and Eva has asked grandma to make her a little mermaid cake. I figure, swimming, cake, juice boxes, I don't really need to do much else, besides find and send out invitations!

As always, more quick takes at Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes Friday - TGINT

Yep, it is the thank goodness it's nap time edition of quick takes around here...it's been a busy morning and I am looking forward to a couple of hours (hopefully) of uninterrupted mommy time (and I intend to spend at least a little of it catching up on the dishes and the laundry...instead of wasting time on Facebook.)

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Today I have some fun 4th of July pictures. Eva was being particularly uncooperative, so I didn't say, good...just fun. We had a great time, hosted a cookout and invited the inlaws down...it was a small gathering this year, only 10 people, but it was fun. Only MIL, FIL and SIL stayed for the fireworks. Every year, we head over to the park by about 8:30...and every year, we wonder when they are going to start the fireworks...so just in case I look back next year to see when they start, the lights at the stadium went off at 9:29, and the fireworks followed directly afterwards.

2-
We had dentist appointments this week...and hubby tried to back out of them (he did have a good excuse, since the full time woman at work is on vacation this week) but we decided to suck it up and go...the problem with rural living is everything is SO FAR AWAY!!! Our dentist is in Kansas...he's the nearest dentist that takes our insurance, and since our health insurance pays for cleanings and checkups (minus a $20 copay) we figure it is worth it...until we have to drive over and back...This time, there was all sorts of road construction, so we took a different route there, which worked out well (a few more miles, but no road construction), but we took our usual route back...TWO separate places with one lane roads and pilot cars...As for the dentist, hubby was really excited, because he didn't get any fillings (partially because he whined to the hygienist about getting them every time) Eva's teeth are really good and she sat through a cleaning. Charlotte let her look at her teeth and got a toothbrush (no cleaning yet, I don't think she'd sit still long enough!) I had to get a filling...yes, I, the person who mostly gets told what excellent teeth I have, had to get a filling. I would like to point out, however, that I think it was my first filling since I got my braces off (1996 maybe?). They do WAY different fillings now than I had way back then. Very quick, but I'm not so sure I like having my teeth sandblasted to get rid of decay...

3-
Wednesday was the final turn in day for the summer reading program, so we took the girls to the library to turn in stuff and get new books. I was talking to one of the librarians, who told me they had 400 kids in the reading program this summer (that's a completely insane number given that the town is only 2000-3000 people...) Eva got all of the prizes this year, and I ordered her the American Heritage First Dictionary (one of my friends thought that was mean...she let her daughter pick My Little Ponies book...I thought that was twaddle...) but don't know if it will work out...the library hasn't called me yet, so we'll see! CRAZY was the only word to describe the library while we were there...

4-
The difficulty I have been having with Charlotte since potty training, is keeping her in panties...she's a little nudist. I've been trying to institute a rule that she must wear panties while we eat...but today hubby had a weirder than normal schedule, I was throwing lunch on the table, and she was wearing a long shirt...I found out at the end of lunch that she had no panties on. The other day we walked up to Subway for dinner. She was in her stroller, buckled in, and wearing a dress (she loves dresses right now), we got there, ate dinner, she said she needed to go potty, and when we got into the bathroom, she pulled up her dress and said "where panties go???" That was my question, too...she must have shed them when she used the potty before we left home.

5-
Clearly, I need a life...but I was pretty excited the other day when I found out there were new crops available on FarmTown (Facebook)...they have recently added, Raspberries, Cotton, Carrots, Peppers, Blueberries and Pineapples...I still need to get to a higher level to get Pineapples, but I have planted Raspberries, Carrots and Blueberries so far. I also found out that you can now hire people to plow for you, so I can hire someone to harvest, hire someone to plow, and all I have to do is plant and sell my crops.

6-
My parents got back from their trip to Europe this week...at least, I assume they are home by now...my mom called me from the Atlanta airport when they found out that their layover would be an extra hour. It sounds like they had a pretty good time, but my mom seemed a little unimpressed with Russia...or maybe it was because they couldn't see as much as they wanted to...I'm not really sure...They want to come out and see us before my mom has to be back at school, which this year is the 30th of July! It sounds like she might be teaching IB Biology this year, so I think she is probably excited about that. So, I'm looking up at my calendar and thinking "how on earth are they going to make it for a visit before the 30th?" I'll be going to Greeley with MIL for a doctor's appointment and a trip to Chuck E Cheese's on Tuesday (yes, the potty training bribe must be paid...), Thursday we have a pool party, Friday Eva has a pool party, Sunday is our 10th anniversary, and Fair in hubby's hometown starts that next week...so we'll see when they come out!

7-
My young married women's bible study group started a new book this week...and I only have myself (and one other former member) to blame. We used to have about 17 women, but we are down to 7, and normally more like 5 of us can make it...we had 4 last night. Our book is called "Praying With Women of the Bible" by Bridget Mary Meehan. Another woman suggested it a couple of years ago, so I put it on my Paperback Swap list, and ended up getting it, but never got around to reading it. When we were discussing the next book, I pulled out a pile, and we all thought this one would be interesting, and hoped that it would help us deepen our prayer lives. Then there was an ordering fiasco, where we found out that the author was dropped by the publisher, and finally I ended up finding used copies for everyone. The first two women were Sarah and Hagar...on the good side, it was interesting to learn more about them and re-read their story (I had read it before, but had forgotten about Abraham asking Sarah to say that she was his sister in foreign lands...and had also forgotten that it wasn't completely a lie, in that Sarah and Abraham had the same father but different mothers...yuck!) HOWEVER, my take on it is that it is written from the perspective or for the 60 year old ex-nun who is working towards a woman priesthood...so, if you can get past that tone (and the "prayer experiences") I think it will work very well. Recently, about half our group went to a Charismatic retreat. The most Charismatic one in our group received a prophecy there that the reason our study group has become so small is so that we can go deeper into prayer. She told me when she opened up the pages for our first session and read the prayer experiences, it was confirmation of that prophecy to her. So, she has been appointed as the official "prayer experience" person, and I will do my best to participate in whatever she throws at us...

More quick takes over at Conversion Diary!

No Air

As you've probably noticed, I've become a big fan of YouTube since we finally upgraded from our dial-up internet connection. Perhaps unfortunately, I've also turned Eva and Charlotte into YouTube junkies to some degree. It's become a little bit of a ritual for Eva to sit on one of my knees and request music videos based on Peter Pan, while Charlotte sits on the other and asks for music videos featuring Disney princesses. I know: I'm warping my kids. Anyway...

Another thing MM and I are fans of, which I wrote about here and here, is "So You Think You Can Dance." Again, yes: we are dorks. Well, yesterday the two things came together nicely when the girls and I were watching this video, while MM was in the other room. The song it was set to reminded MM and so much of one of our favorite performances on SYTYCD that I thought I'd share it with all of you. So, here for your viewing pleasure are Katee and Joshua dancing to "No Air" by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown:

The Cardinal and the Coup

The media outlets that are bothering to cover the coup in Honduras in any detail were, in most cases, quick to imply that Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez's public request that ousted President Manuel Zelaya stay out of the country for the time being was another illustration of the old Latin American model: the Catholic Church siding with the wealthy elite to keep the poor in their place. This cliche is probably most famously developed in Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America, which has regained some notoriety of late with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez's gift of the book to President Barack Obama.

The truth about the Church's role in Honduras is more complicated than the secular Left's talking points make it out to be, though. If you actually listen to what the Cardinal says, which you may do below thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you will see that his primary concern is to avoid the seemingly inevitable violence that would break out if Zelaya returned to that highly charged environment. In addition, he advocates for his country's people when asking that the international community resist any calls for "blockades, which will only hurt the poor."

Leading up to the coup, it is clear that the Church was strongly opposed to Zelaya's attempts to lengthen his term as president and change the country's constitution. However, "a priest working closely with Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras" has reported that the Honduran Church had hoped to deter Zelaya's play for a dictatorship without resorting to measures like a military coup. He says:

[T]he coup is not the solution within a life in democracy. The coup does not resolve the political problem that has emerged over the last decade in the exhaustion of the system of political parties in Honduras; there has been a traditional bi-party system since the last century, since 1920 or so…These parties need to reform themselves, but these reforms should not should not via a caudillo, authoritarianism, nor a coup d’etat…

Lost in ALL of the reporting, so far as I can tell, is the influence Cardinal Rodriquez carries in the region. He is only the second cardinal from Central America and was widely considered "the top candidate to become Latin America's first pope" at the time of Pope John Paul II's death, and -being 20 years younger than Pope Benedict XVI- still could be. In fact, at least one betting website apparently lists him as the odds-on favorite to succeed Benedict. So this is a story that could be a lot bigger than just Honduras, or even Central America.

Check out the video, aired all across Honduras, and decide what you think about the Cardinal's intentions:

Quick Takes Friday

1-
We had a pretty good time in Las Vegas...not so sure I'd go back again. Lots of smoke, wasting money and other not so good for you things. Maybe my opinion of the trip would be different if 1) we hadn't gotten suckered into lying while we were there (long story) and 2) that hadn't meant that we would need to go to confession when we got to the Knights of Columbus with our former priest who is now the state Chaplain for Knights...he is just so extremely holy, it is very intimidating (not to mention he gives weird penances...) and I could just feel how disappointed in us he was over the whole situation. When I mentioned that the only reason we went to Vegas was it was the only destination I could come up with where hubby didn't want to bring the kids, he told me that our kids SHOULD go on vacation with us (which they usually do...) He also told me his list of 4 things that married couples should do each year. Number one, every year the wife should go on a weekend retreat, just her and God, the more silence the better. Number two, every year the husband should go away for a weekend retreat, just himself and God, the more silence the better. Number 3, every year the couple should go away for a weekend retreat together with God. Number 4, every family should take a yearly family vacation and make sure to do something for their faith on the trip, visit a shrine, a Cathedral, or something else while on vacation.

2-
The highlights for our Las Vegas vacation for me were seeing the Bellagio fountains (so beautiful!), meeting with hubby's high school classmates who live and work as lawyers in Vegas (too much fun chatting with them) who are getting ready for their first daughter, finding a new purse after mine (that was my mother's day present) kicked the bucket completely...after looking at tons of purses in the over $100 to WAY over $100 range (one was $895 on sale!) I found a plain but functional purse at the Gap for under $20, finding gifts for the girls (we wanted something personalized, but do you know how hard it is to find things with the names Eva and Charlotte???), and lazing around in the Backlot River pool (basically, a river shaped pool with a current so all you have to do is float along!)

3-
Our biggest fight during the vacation happened after we had flown back to Denver while we were driving down to Colorado Springs. The weather was pretty sketchy, so we stopped at a mall to kill some time while the rain and hail died down a little bit. I found two books on clearance for $3 each at a bookstore, one that I thought Eva would really enjoy having read to her, and another that I thought would be fun to read (by this point in the trip, I was out of reading material until hubby finally finished his book). Hubby gave me this whole speech about how he had promised me that he would tell me not to buy books from a bookstore, since I do so much paperbackswap...he basically was a big jerk to me about it, and I told him so, which he didn't like. In the end, I put both books back, reminded myself to stop telling hubby anything, and we went on our way. He felt a little bad about the fight, so I think mostly to make it up to me, the next day, we spent some time at another bookstore, and in their clearance books, we found the same book I wanted in hardcover for $1. At that point, he did let me buy the book, and I finished it before he got done with his morning of meetings the next day. The book was The Mr. & Mrs. Happy Handbook by Steve Doocy and contains such useful advice as "Never play strip poker with your neighbors or any member of the Knights of Columbus."

4-
When we got home on Sunday evening, we didn't go pick up the girls, because I had an appointment on Monday morning. So, Monday morning as hubby was heading to work, he woke me up, told me to get out of bed and get ready to go...and I had to ask "why is it that I need to get up again???" (I really couldn't remember...it had been a long week!) So, I got up, got dressed, and headed out the door. I found out that it is a much faster trip up there without children in tow, so I managed to do all my shopping before my appointment (okay, mostly I needed dog food and a couple of items from Walgreens). I ended up not getting an adjustment because it turns out I lost 9.2 lbs in two weeks! The doc told me to keep doing what I had been doing...of course, what I had been doing was a TON of walking in Las Vegas and eating out for every meal, and not cooking, cleaning or caring for children. I doubt I'll do quite that well at home, but it does make me think that maybe the restriction of my band is working.

5-
We have been falling pretty quickly back into a schedule. Tuesday Eva had a library thing, Wednesday and Thursday we did school, and we will be doing school again today after I get done with these quick takes (you gotta have priorities!) and the girls have been sleeping pretty well, considering how different our schedule is from grandma's (complete lack of a) schedule. I think we can safely say that Charlotte is officially potty trained! She even makes it through a great majority of nights without having an accident, and will NOT wear a pull up anymore.

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I'm VERY excited for tomorrow! Hubby has the day off work, so that means a two day weekend, and we are going to host a little picnic here. I'm not sure who all will make it, but it sounds like it will be a smaller crowd. The girls and I are going to make a flag cake, and we are going to have hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, baked beans, and watermelon (and whatever salad(s) MIL brings down). The girls are excited to wear their dopey 4th of July headbands...here's a picture of Charlotte in hers last year. (which reminds me how very much I love our new camera...our kids just move way too much for our old one!)

7-
We are trying to decide whether or not to go to the Midwest Catholic Family Conference next month in Wichita. I'd love to go, the speakers look great, and it is always fun for us to go. Hubby's main issues are that Charlotte still won't be quite old enough for the kids program and she will probably be very mad that Eva gets to go and she doesn't, and that we have so many household projects to do around here. So, we really aren't any closer to making a decision yet, but the good news is the registration fee doesn't go up until after the 24th of July, so we still have a couple of weeks to figure it out!

More quick takes, as always at Jen's blog!